Shi No Tenshi
by FenrisRoots
Summary: Discontinued: Banishment changes Naruto as he discovers just how deadly he can be.
1. Chapter 1

Okay, just to make everything clear, this story was written awhile ago and I ended up taking off this site however I've decided to repost it and many others that I've discontinued or are awaiting a rewrite.

ALL of my active stories are posted on the profile for Fenris187 and none of the fics here will be updated.

Also, I own no IP at all right now and make no money off this free access fanfiction.

* * *

It was raining heavily and at the main gate to the village of Konoha we find a young pink haired girl waiting for her teammates and sensei to return. Her name was Haruno Sakura and right now she was cursing her own weakness.

"_Why do I have to be so weak? If I was stronger I could be out there bringing Sasuke-kun back instead of just standing here waiting for Naruto-baka and Kakashi-sensei to bring him back," _ those were currently the thoughts going through her head as she just stood there like a statue before she noticed movement in the distance, _"is that them? Do they have Sasuke-kun?"_ she began to run towards the figures only to stop dead in her tracks when she noticed that only two members of team 7 were there. "Kakashi-sensei where's Sasuke-kun?" she asked desperation clear in her voice as her sensei walked towards her. He stood at 5' 9 and wore a traditional Konoha Jōnin garb consisting of navy blue shinobi pants and long sleeved shirt, blue shinobi sandals and a typical Jōnin flak vest. He also wore a pair of black gloves with metal plates on the back of the hands and slanted his hitae-ate over his left eye. Currently clinging to his back was a boy about the same age as Sakura, who was wearing a tattered and torn blue and orange jumpsuit with a hitae-ate tied around his forehead. He had spiky blonde hair and three whisker like marks on each cheek. His normally bright blue eyes currently held an air of sadness about them.

"Sasuke, got away," came the older ninja's dejected reply as he refused to look his student in the eye before walking towards the hospital to get his other student treated for his numerous injuries.

As the Jōnin was walking away with her teammate, Sakura was only thinking one thing, _"Sasuke-kun" _before she fell to her knees and started sobbing at being unable to see her Sasuke-kun again.

Normally Uzumaki Naruto was a permanently happy individual, he would constantly smile despite the circumstances but right now he couldn't bring himself to put up even a façade of happiness.

He had just been a member of the team sent to retrieve Uchiha Sasuke, the person he considered a brother in all but blood.

The mission had started off badly when the group got trapped in a dome of earth that started to drain their chakra, when they finally managed to escape the trap, they left their friend Chōji behind to deal with the member that created the dome before running straight into another trap which ended up with them all getting stuck in a giant spider web. If it wasn't for Neji they would have all perished there. Then they were forced to leave Kiba and Akamaru behind to fight some two headed freak, only for the enemy to get reinforcements. He managed to get past the red headed girl who stayed behind to hold them off because of Shikamaru managing to trick her, but then Naruto got in a fight with the guy who took the barrel containing the unconscious Sasuke. No matter how much he tried Naruto simply couldn't hit the guy, even when he started to use the Kyūbi's chakra. Eventually Sasuke emerged from the barrel, and Naruto thought it would end there, he was wrong. Sasuke ran away to wherever it was the enemy was taking him, and Naruto only managed to escape his opponent thanks to the timely intervention of Rock Lee.

In the end though, Naruto was forced to fight his brother. The two went at each other like bitter enemies and Naruto was forced to draw on more of the Kyūbi's chakra than ever before, but in the end, he still lost, because he held back on his last attack.

Now look at him, in the hospital after a failed mission, the only one that mattered to him. He remembered before he left, he promised Sakura-chan that he would bring Sasuke back, he realised now that he was making that promise more to himself than her. But right now, he had broken a promise, he was worse than trash.

That was when she came in, he couldn't bring himself to look at her, he wasn't worthy to do such a thing (at least in his mind). He listened to her footsteps, coming slowly across the room, the pace was unbearable. What was really only a couple of seconds seemed like an eternity to Naruto as thoughts of how she would hate him for breaking his promise plagued his mind. He noticed how she was occasionally sniffing, it proved to him that she had been crying, his weakness had made Sakura-chan cry. When he thought that, he immediately wanted to just die, just so he couldn't hear her cry. He listened and he heard her, "Naruto, are you awake?" her voice was full of sadness and it sounded like she would burst into tears at any moment. He however just answered with a nod, he just couldn't bring himself to speak to her, not after the pain he caused her. "I-I'm s-so sorry," she was almost bursting into tears as she said this but what she said next surprised him, "I-I m-made you promise to bring S-Sasuke-kun back, if I hadn't t-then," she kept losing her composure before she couldn't stop herself and broke down right next to him, as he still refused to look at her, still convinced that he wasn't worthy, "m-m-mayb-be y-y-you w-wouldn-n't be in h-here!" she managed to get out through her sobbing, it was after hearing this that the blonde decided to ask the only question on his mind.

"Y-you don't hate me?" his voice was filled with sadness, confusion and a hint of desperation, almost as if he expected to receive nothing but hate but was desperately hoping that he would receive some form of compassion.

"O-of course I d-don't hate you, y-you d-did some-something, I-I just s-stood there w-waiting for you to c-come b-back," the pink haired girl replied while trying her hardest to make Naruto happy.

"B-but Sakura-chan, I broke my promise, I'm worse than trash," the blonde boy tried to reason with his crush.

"W-what! What are you talking about, you did your best! That's all anyone can ask of you!" the shocked girl shouted at him, simply because she couldn't believe what she was hearing, he hated himself for breaking a promise.

"But it wasn't enough, I wasn't strong enough, I broke a promise, I broke my nindo, I'm worse than trash," Naruto told her in a dejected tone.

Thinking quickly the young pinkette came up with a way to bring his spirit back up, "no, you didn't break your promise, you never said when you'd bring Sasuke-kun back, just that you would, so that means we can go after him, together next time, okay?"

When he heard this his thoughts started to travel at a million miles an hour, they could bring Sasuke back, they just had to hope that the snake bastard hadn't taken over his body yet, if he hadn't then, they had about three years according to the conversation the retrieval team overheard about the body changing process, to get strong enough to save their friend.

"Yeah, we just have to get stronger," the blonde said with happiness clear in his voice at the prospect of bringing Sasuke back.

- (Meanwhile at the daimyo's palace)

The daimyo was currently in a meeting with a well known political figure of Konoha, the heavily bandaged one eyed man was currently trying (and succeeding) to convince the Daimyo of what was best for Konoha (even if it was a lie).

"I assure you daimyo-sama, it was observed and stated in all witness statements that Uzumaki Naruto was the one who defeated the Ichibi during the Suna invasion just over a month ago, while it was also stated that the last Uchiha was helpless against it, as such I believe it is safe to assume that Uzumaki allowed the last Uchiha to escape, since none of his injuries were serious," the old shinobi stated calmly.

"I see, so you believe that this Uzumaki Naruto is a traitor and should be dealt with as such," the fire daimyo interpreted.

"On the contrary, due to lack of physical evidence I believe we should be lenient on the boy and merely banish him," the heavily bandaged war veteran claimed.

"Oh, if the boy is a traitor then shouldn't he be executed?" the wiry daimyo asked with curiosity lacing his voice.

"Normally yes, but that is to keep village secrets a secret, this child is merely a genin and therefore doesn't know any village secrets and hasn't had any village specific medicines used on him and as such there is no danger to village security should he be dissected by one of Konoha's enemies and since there is no physical evidence pertaining to his treachery it would cause a severe blow to morale if a shinobi was executed purely on suspicion of treason," the Cyclops explained to the daimyo.

"I see your point, I will write up the banishment order for you to take with you upon your return to Konoha Danzō -kun."

"Thank you daimyo-sama I will take my leave when you have finished," and with that the daimyo pulled out a pen and paper before signing the banishment order of the young jinchūriki.

- (Back in Konoha)

"So all of the retrieval team will be fine," a busty blonde was currently informing Naruto as he lay in the hospital bed.

"So Chōji and Neji nearly died, dammit, we all gave our all and still failed," the young teen said with tears freely falling from his glazed over eyes.

"However no-one actually died and that's all that matters," the woman said with a happy smile.

Just as Naruto was about to respond, the door was flung open revealing a bear masked ANBU who promptly stated "I'm sorry for the interruption Hokage-sama but Danzō has called for a council meeting, I am unaware of what it is about however he has in his possession a letter with the fire daimyo's official seal."

"I see, then I guess we will have to wait to continue our conversation gaki, if the fire daimyo is getting involved then I have no option but to attend this meeting, I'll see you later okay," and with that the blonde woman left the hospital ready to listen to the daimyo's orders.

- (at the council chambers)

"Alright Danzō what the hell are you trying to pull?" the buxom blonde shouted as she entered the council chambers.

"Nothing Tsunade-sama I am merely delivering a message from the fire daimyo himself," the bandaged man stated allowing no emotion to show on his face as he handed the letter to the leader of the village.

Tsunade took the letter off of him before sitting down in her assigned seat on the council, where she opened the official letter and started to read it. As she read it, the entire council could see the shock and fear in her eyes.

"N-no, Danzō YOU BASTARD!" of course her shout combined with the fact that she completely shattered the table in front of her with a single punch caused the entire council (except Danzō) to cringe in fear.

"You should be happy Tsunade-sama, the daimyo wanted to have him executed, however I managed to convince him to merely banish the child," the perpetrator stated calmly allowing no emotion to show on his features, just as he always did.

This however did not calm Tsunade, however she knew that she couldn't win this argument unless she went to the daimyo himself, and even then he would be hard to convince otherwise. She just had to keep herself composed long enough to tell the person she thought of as a little brother the devastating news, she knew he wouldn't take it well.

Naruto was happy, right now he was talking to Shikamaru, Sakura, Kiba, Shino, Hinata, Ino, Iruka, Kakashi and even Jiraiya was there to talk to him, and he was happy that no-one blamed him for Sasuke's escape.

That was when Tsunade entered the room, the pain visible in her eyes, of course this got everyone's attention, after all what could possibly hurt the Hokage enough to make the pain visible?

"I'm sorry Naruto, but one of those bastards on the council m-managed to persuade the fire daimyo t-to, order your banishment," she said as calmly as she could, though she couldn't bring herself to look him in the eyes.

"WHAT!" was the unanimous cry of everyone in the room, except Naruto himself, since he was currently too dumbstruck to say anything.

"Who the hell managed to convince the daimyo to banish Naruto?" Jiraiya asked unusually calm.

"Danzō," the blonde woman stated.

"I see, well if Naruto is going to be banished then I guess he should get some training off me huh?" the gama-sennin said with a grin.

"Unfortunately if you did that, the daimyo's message was clear, anyone from Konoha who helps Naruto will be immediately executed," the slug-sannin said barely holding back her tears. Of course that last part got everyone's attention. Naruto would be on his own unless he joined another village or found some missing nin to travel with.

"I'm sorry Naruto but you only have to the end of the day to gather your stuff and leave the village before you will be considered trespassing and, and…" Tsunade started unable to finish.

"I-I understand Baa-chan, you can't do anything, I'll go now," and with that the young blonde got out of his bed to get himself ready for his banishment.

- (ROOT ANBU HQ)

"To summarise your orders you are to locate and retrieve the Kyūbi jinchūriki by any means necessary except the death of the host, he should leave the village later tonight so follow him until he is too far to reveal my plan now GO!" Danzō shouted at his private army of emotionless nin, who all quickly dispersed to take their positions for the plan.

"_Soon, soon I will possess the Kyūbi and then, the nations will fall before the might of Konoha," _were the only thoughts running through the bandaged nin's head.

It didn't take long for Naruto to do everything he needed to, he only really had one possession, the photo of him with team 7, as they once were, happy and carefree.

Then for the people he had to tell, there were only the Ichiraku's at the ramen stand and the Konohamaru corps. Neither took it well.

But right now we find him standing in front of the main gate to Konoha, where, he said his goodbyes to his home. He came early just so he didn't have to see the people he cared about, doing so might of caused him to stay too long, and if he did that then… he would be executed.

So with tears falling down his face, he set out to leave his home, with a new goal, simply to survive.


	2. Chapter 2

Naruto sat in front of a campfire, currently drying off, next to him lay a young redhead he recognised as the girl in the group that kidnapped Sasuke. Why was he in this position well it all started…

_Flashback no Jutsu_

_It had only been an hour since Naruto had left and he had already run into trouble, three ANBU wearing masks that all had the kanji for "Ne" written on them._

"_Uzumaki Naruto by order of Danzō-sama you are to come with us," the first of the nin stated as he prepared to subdue the target if it chose to defy him._

"_As in the same Danzō who got me banished, yeah right!" the blonde shouted at the leader of the group._

"_Very well then," the nin stated before covering the distance between the two too quickly for Naruto to see, before kneeing the teen in the gut. The man was about to place a restraining seal on the jinchūriki when he was caught off guard by it disappearing in a puff of smoke._

"_Shit it was a Kage Bunshin, find the target immediately!" the leader of the group shouted at his subordinates who quickly took to the trees in search of their prey._

_- (elsewhere)_

"_Huh?" the young blonde thought as he suddenly remembered the conversation his clone had with the ANBU, "Wait a minute, WHY THE FUCK DIDN'T KAKASHI-SENSEI TELL ME ABOUT THAT! OR THAT DAMN ERO-SENNIN!" were the only thoughts going through his mind at this time, resulting in him not noticing the ROOT ANBU that was currently pursuing him._

_The ANBU quickly used the blondes distraction to land a solid blow to the boys head, resulting in him being knocked out of his musings as he fell out of the tree tops and into the forest below, quickly followed by the ROOT ninja._

_The young jinchūriki was quick to recover from the blow, and quickly used his favourite jutsu, "Tajū Kage Bunshin no jutsu!" before the ANBU could react the forest was blanketed with the Naruto copies. Of course to a highly trained ninja this didn't mean much, quality over quantity as they say._

_True to form the ANBU quickly cut through the clones, with every strike hitting one clone into several others, causing many to disperse at the same time. Eventually there was only one left, who gave a battle cry before charging the nin._

_Each punch was blocked, each kick redirected, no matter what he tried Naruto just couldn't keep up with the ROOT ninja, of course that didn't mean he would just give up, or he wasn't Uzumaki Naruto._

_After several minutes of fighting the two ended up dangerously close to a cliff and the ANBU gave one of his usual hits designed to disable the blonde without killing him. Unfortunately there just so happened to be a large stone that Naruto tripped on._

_The ANBU could only say one thing when it happened "oh shit!", after tripping on the stone the blonde couldn't regain his balance quick enough to NOT fall off the cliff and into the river below, where he was swept off to Kami knows where._

_When Naruto hit the water, the impact caused him to black out, and now he wakes up only to find himself on a riverbank, soaking wet and cold._

_He quickly checked his supplies to make sure he still had everything, and he did (thank Kami for shinobi backpacks, highly durable, waterproof and airtight, perfect for the shinobi on a mission), with that done, he decided to find somewhere to set up camp._

_He soon found a clearing, well a large number of fallen trees, probably sliced down if his analysis of the damage was correct. He continued to walk slowly when he heard laboured breathing, he followed the sound until he found the redhead girl who helped kidnap his brother laying there underneath a large tree trunk._

_Looking on Naruto was having an internal struggle, he should help her, but she took the most precious thing he had away, but she was doing it on orders, but she followed the bastard who gave those orders._

_In the end, he simply couldn't bring himself to leave someone who needs help, and after removing the tree that was crushing her (Kage bunshin is so useful at times) carried her to a secluded area where he used what little medical knowledge he had to try and fix her injuries, while a kage bunshin set up the camp._

_Flashback kai_

So here he was, keeping what was once his enemy alive purely because he was too soft to just leave her to die.

He had placed several kage bunshin around the area so that he would know if one of those ROOT bastards showed up, so he wasn't too worried.

"Uhh, fuck, that fuckin' Suna bitch, I can't believe she fuckin' took the whole fuckin forest down to get me, damn bitch!" the redhead started off drowsily before her voice raised in volume to a shout.

"You like to say fuck don't you," Naruto stated before she realised what her situation was.

"Huh? Wait you're… FUCK! I CAN'T FUCKIN BELIEVE I GOT FUCKIN CAUGHT! FUCK, FUCK, FUCK," she would of continued some more, if Naruto didn't cover her mouth with his hand.

"Will you please shut up, I've got a fuckin private army after me and I really don't want you to give me away with your shouting," the young blonde hissed to the girl he found.

When she heard this she realised something about the boy in front of her, quickly removing his hand from her mouth she asked her question "where the fuck is your fuckin hitae-ate?"

When she said this he visibly cringed and she instantly had a good idea of what happened, "You got banished didn't you," at the cringe that followed that sentence she knew she was right.

"So what the fuck where you fuckin banished for?" she asked ever so eloquently.

"I don't know, I was just told that a bastard named Danzō managed to trick the daimyo into signing my banishment orders and now he has his damn ROOT ANBU chasing me," the blonde explained to the girl next to him.

"Wait did you say Danzō as in Shimura Danzō?" the redhead asked suddenly.

"Huh? Yeah that's him, the old warhawk on the council, do you know him?" Naruto responded to her question.

"Not personally but I overheard hebi-teme talking about his arm and mokuton cells, oh he also said something about stealing sharingan too," she told him.

"So Danzō has access to both kekkei genkai that can control the Kyūbi, so that means…" the blonde concluded as his eyes widened with realisation.

"You were banished to get you out of the Hokages protection so he could release the Kyūbi," the teenage girl finished for him.

"Yeah… HOLD ON YOU KNOW!" Naruto shouted at the still prone girl.

"No duh, Hebi-teme might have been an arrogant motherfucker but he did at least brief his tools on what they might face," and with that said there was a few minutes of silence between the two.

"So Tayuya right?" the blonde asked cautiously.

"That's right shithead," was her ever so eloquent response.

"Why do you keep calling hebi-teme, well, hebi-teme?" he asked her with curiosity lacing his voice.

"Why? Because that creeps a fuckin paedophile, treats his ninja like shit, experiments on some of them and then there's this damn seal he places on some of us," when she said that last part she showed him the curse seal on the back of her neck.

"Huh? I thought you liked the seal?"

"Sure, this fuckin seal gives a major boost in strength, but it also fucks me up if hebi-teme wants it too, so I just gotta hope that he thinks I'm dead," Tayuya claimed.

"Why? Don't you want to go home?"

"Pfft what fuckin home? If ya mean that fuckin Oto then you need to have your fuckin head checked. Hebi-teme would fuckin kill me if I went back to that shithole, plus this is my one fuckin chance to escape that bastard."

"Sorry, I guess I just thought that all shinobi love their village like I did," the blue eyed teen said sadly.

"Pfft not like you fuckin knew what Oto was like, you'd get fuckin raped if ya didn't protect yourself from the shitheads," Tayuya informed him.

"Sorry."

"What the fuck is wrong with you? You're saying sorry to every fuckin thing I say!" the now angry redhead practically shouted at him.

"Look, I'm just apologizing if I brought up any bad memories okay!" now this was definitely unusual to Tayuya, no-one ever thought about her feelings before, yet right here in front of her was this teenage boy, who was once her enemy, actually thinking about her feelings when she was the one at his mercy, it didn't make any sense to her.

"Why do you care?"

"I don't know, I just do," now that wasn't the reply she was expecting, _"but then again he isn't from Oto" _she reminded herself.

"Anyway, I've got several kage bunshin to keep watch so I'm going to sleep now," Naruto told her before making his way to a spare sleeping bag he brought just in case anything happened to the first.

- (daimyo's palace)

"I'm sorry Tsunade-chan but until you can give me physical evidence that Uzumaki is NOT a traitor then I will not lift the banishment orders, Danzō-kun's argument was much better than yours," the daimyo told the godaime hokage sitting across from him.

"Then why didn't Danzō need proof!" the blonde woman shouted out.

"Danzō gave enough circumstantial evidence to accuse the boy of treachery, it was purely because of his lack of proof that Uzumaki was banished instead of executed."

"Don't you know anything about Danzō? He is a warhawk, he's been wanting to turn Naruto into a weapon for years now! The only reason he hasn't is because my sensei wouldn't allow it! And now you've just gone and taken away the only protection Naruto has, Danzō will do everything he can to capture him!" Tsunade claimed to the daimyo.

"These are serious accusations you are making, do you have any evidence to support your claims?"

"Danzō is a ninja on par with my former sensei! Of course he won't leave any evidence of his activities!"

"Then I think you should get back to running your village Tsunade-chan."

"Dammit," was the only word to come out of the sannin's mouth as she was escorted off the premises.

- (next day near the Hi no Kuni/ Kaze no Kuni border)

"Alright, just a little further and we'll hit Suna, are you alright?" the blonde teen said to the redhead currently clinging to his back.

"Other than having my fuckin legs broken, praying that motherfucking Hebi-teme doesn't find me and being stuck with a shithead like you, I'm just fuckin peachy," was the sarcastic response from Tayuya.

"Geez, you don't need to be so mean about it."

"And you don't have to be such a whiney bitch about it shithead!"

"Do you want me to leave you here?!"

"Fuck no!"

"Then shut up!"

"…"

As Naruto continued to walk towards the border, Tayuya noticed movement out of the corner of her eye. Slowly reaching down for her flute, she began to panic when she realised that it wasn't there.

"Oi shithead, where the fuck is my flute!" she practically shouted in his ear.

"Huh, you mean this thing," and with that the blonde pulled out a couple of snapped and crushed tubes with holes in them, in other words, a flute that was broken beyond repair.

"Oh shit," were the only words to come out of her mouth when she saw what was left of her weapon.

"What's wrong? Was your flute expensive or something?"

"No, it was my medium for casting genjutsu and controlling my summons," the redhead explained to him.

"Hold on, are you telling me that you can fight as long as you have a flute?"

"Yeah, but without my flute OR my legs, I'm screwed in a fight."

"Okay, so why tell me now instead of earlier?"

"GOTCHA!" came the cry of a ROOT nin as he jumped out of the foliage ready to grab the blonde.

"THAT!" pointed out the redhead.

He couldn't escape in time, this ninja would get him, he was going to be taken to that bastard Danzō, and there was nothing to save him.

"Sabaku Kyū!" and with that sentence the ROOT ninja was swept away in a river of sand before being encased, "Sabaku Sōsō" and with that call the ROOT nin was no more.

"GAARA!" was the first word out of Naruto's mouth as he looked around for his saviour, who he found walking out of the tree line flanked by his siblings.

"Uzumaki," was Gaara's response to the blondes greeting.


	3. Chapter 3

The five teens stood in the clearing looking at each other for just a couple of seconds.

Gaara stood in the middle of the three, dressed in a buttoned up brown trench coat with a brown strap for attaching the large gourd he carried to his back. His hair was red and styled in spikes. On the left side of his forehead was a tattoo of the kanji for love.

On his right was his older sister Temari. She had blonde hair tied into four pigtails, she wore a blue kimono top covered by a piece of anbu style armour with a red clothe tied at the waist. She wore a short slitted black skirt along with some fish net on her upper left leg and right shin, her feet were covered by a pair of black ninja sandals.

On Gaara's right was his older brother Kankurō. He wore a black, full body jumpsuit with a hood that had two points that looked like cat ears. On his face there were many purple lines that formed a pattern that Naruto did not know the meaning of.

Before Naruto opened his mouth to say something, only to be beaten to the punch by the redhead attached to his back.

"YOU! YOU'RE THE BITCH THAT BROKE MY FUCKIN FLUTE!" of course this drew the attention of the blonde Suna genin who immediately grabbed a hold of the giant fan that was strapped to her back and brought it in front of herself.

"Naruto-san that girl your with was one of the ones who kidnapped the Uchiha, why are you helping her?" the Suna girl asked as she assumed an offensive stance.

"Eh, Temari, this is Naruto we're talking about, you know, the guy who became friends with Gaara," Kankurō deadpanned towards his slightly older sister.

"What's that supposed to mean?" the oldest of the Suna siblings hissed back.

"Let's see, Gaara tried to kill him, kill the girl he has a crush on, oh yeah, let's not forget that Gaara tried to destroy his home and crush everyone he cared about, so I don't see what's so surprising about him helping someone who just kidnapped his supposed friend," came the black clad boy's response causing his sister to stare at him blankly.

"(sigh) fine, I get your point, but you did realise who the person you're carrying is right?" the blonde girl questioned him while keeping her guard up.

"Yeah, I do know who this is, and I don't think she'll be returning to Hebi-teme," Naruto assured her as she finally decided to put her fan back in its place on her back.

"I still don't trust her," Temari stated.

"Neither do I," the former Konoha nin informed her.

"What the fuck is that supposed to mean shithead!" the redhead shouted in his ear.

"Nothing."

"By the way… why are you carrying her?" the blonde Suna nin asked cautiously.

"Because you went and fucking broke my fucking legs ya bitch!" Tayuya shouted out.

"Hey! Don't call my sister a bitch!" the black clad member of the group shouted out.

"Everyone shut up," came the monotone call of the male redhead who had remained unnaturally (or naturally for him) quiet throughout the entire conversation, "if she is injured then it would make sense for us to find a nearby town and get her fixed up."

There was silence as Temari brought out a map of the elemental countries, before marking their position on it and deciding on the quickest town to reach (well one with a hospital anyway).

With their destination agreed upon, the quintet left the clearing and started running through the treetops.

They had been running for several hours now, and the group had finally decided to stop for the night. Temari had already calculated that it would take the group another two days to reach the nearest town at their current pace.

Right now the group was currently seated around a small campfire as they ate some of their provisions.

"Hey Naruto, will you be coming with us to Suna?" the blonde Suna nin asked curiously as she ate her meal.

"I can't, Suna and Konoha are allies, if you took me in then, the alliance would end," Naruto responded as he ate a cup of instant ramen.

"Why do you care about the alliance? Konoha banished you," she was about to say more but was cut off by the other blond.

"No, Konoha didn't banish me, it was one man who tricked the daimyo into banishing me so he could get me away from any form of protection, he was also the one who sent those ANBU after me," the former Konoha nin informed the Suna siblings without looking up from his ramen.

"I see, so since it was just one man, you don't want to weaken the entire village by destroying it's only alliance," was the blonde girls statement concerning his motives for refusing to join Suna.

"Yeah."

There was silence for several minutes before Kankurō decided to voice his opinion.

"You know, just because Naruto can't join Suna doesn't mean we can't help him."

"Huh?" came the intelligent response of the orange clad former genin.

"Well I was just thinking that, we could teach Naruto a thing or two whenever we see him, you know, help him improve his skills, I know it would take a long time and all, but in the end it could really benefit him," the puppeteer explained.

"Wait, the only things you know are village secrets, you can't seriously want to share them!" Naruto shouted at the black clad boy.

"Naruto, you gave us our little brother back, sharing what we know is the least we can do, even if what we share are village secrets," was the claim made by Kankurō.

Looking to Temari, he noticed that she agreed with her brothers statement, Naruto would get training off them, even if they were sharing village techniques with him.

"Hold the fuck up! What the fuck is all this shit about anyway?" moment ruined courtesy of a foulmouthed redhead.

The person who decided to answer was in fact the other redhead in the group.

"Before Naruto beat sense into me, I lived only to kill and survive, I never thought of my siblings as anything more than annoyances, but Naruto managed to save me from my darkness and I now accept my siblings as just that, family."

"Pfft, I don't see what's so fuckin great about having a fuckin family anyway."

Naruto was about to respond, but was beaten to the punch by Gaara, again.

"You don't know what it's like unless you have one, but when you do have one, you don't want to lose it, I know, I was once like you, I didn't let myself have a family and I regret that now."

"Fuck this, I'm fuckin tired and wanna get some fuckin sleep… SO SOMEONE TAKE ME TO MY FUCKIN BED!" Tayuya shouted at them, resulting in Naruto taking her to the tent they had set up for her.

"Damn, she has an even bigger temper than Baa-chan," Naruto mumbled as he returned to the group eliciting a small chuckle from everyone present, including Gaara.

"If you are going to be travelling, you should stay with her, her techniques are dangerous and the only reason I could beat her was because of my skill with Fūton techniques," Temari stated with absolute seriousness in her voice.

"I guess so, and maybe having someone to talk to will stop me from going insane," the orange clad boy stated sombrely.

"Anyway, when we arrive at the next town and get her in the hospital, we'll start teaching you the basics of our techniques until she is capable of walking again," Kankurō told Naruto calmly.

"Wait, what about your mission report?" the former konoha nin asked them.

"Sent it by messenger bird before we left Konoha, we were even given a fortnight off of duty, so we can help you without too much difficulty," the blonde girl informed him.

"Thank you."

"Not a problem, anyway, we've got a long day ahead of us so it would be wise to get some rest, Gaara will act as lookout, since he still can't sleep without releasing Shukaku," after getting a nod from the chronic insomniac, the group made their way into their tents before getting a good nights sleep.

- (ROOT HQ)

Danzō was livid even if he refuse to show it, he had expected to receive the Kyūbi jinchūriki last night or earlier this morning at the latest, however it appeared as thought that wasn't the case.

The boy had apparently met up with the Ichibi jinchūriki and it had killed one of his men, of course Danzō couldn't bring this to light, after all, he was supposed to have disbanded his ROOT division years ago, and since the member was not registered as a citizen of Hi no Kuni, let alone a ninja, there was nothing he could do about it.

He just had to hope that the Kyūbi brat wouldn't join Suna or he would of weakened Konoha significantly, and that wasn't his plan. He wanted to get the Kyūbi itself under his control so that Konoha and Suna could defeat all the other countries before turning on Suna to unite the continent under Konoha, then they would start taking over the other continents piece by piece until the world was running under the flag of the leaf.

Of course this plan relied solely on keeping Konoha the strongest village and in order to do that they need allies until they were large enough to eliminate all opposition at the same time. And right now his plan was being threatened by the jinchūriki of the Ichibi.

All he could possibly do now, was wait and hope.

Something he hated to do.

- (back in Konoha)

Tsunade was not happy at all, she had tried to find any evidence against Danzō but no matter how hard she tried, she just couldn't find any.

Then there was Jiraiya, he was constantly pushing for her to dismiss a couple of ANBU who liked Naruto and unofficially send them after him. While she considered the idea seriously, there was no guarantee that they would find him, and even if they did, Konoha was already low on manpower and her decision could cause the daimyo to remove her from her position and place someone like Danzō as Hokage.

That was something she would NOT risk.

Then of course there was Sakura, she had burst into her office one day and practically begged to be her apprentice, stating that if she had only been stronger then she might have been able to help Naruto stop Sasuke and everything would have been alright. When the Godaime had questioned how everything would have been alright, the response she got surprised her, 'if we had stopped Sasuke-kun then the bastard who got Naruto banished wouldn't of had any ammunition against him and he would still be here,' with that statement in mind, the legendary medic decided to accept the pink haired konoichi as her second apprentice.

Kakashi had refused to teach another genin cell, claiming that he had already proven to be incapable of teaching because of the disaster that was team 7. He kept stating that if he had been a better sensei then Sasuke might not of run off to Orochimaru and Naruto wouldn't of been banished. Even if Sasuke had run off to Orochimaru, Naruto would of probably been strong enough to stop him if he had received proper training.

Team 8 wasn't functioning at all since Kiba was still in hospital and Hinata refused to leave her room, with members of the branch family often hearing her sobbing over losing 'her Naruto-kun'. Apparently she had decided to leave with him, only to find that she was too late, and with everyone stopping her, she simply couldn't leave the village without an escort.

The Shikamaru started to take his training more seriously, not wanting a repeat of last time. He was impressing Asuma with his determination, pushing himself past his limit, which he had promised himself he would keep doing so that if he ever had to lead a team again, he would be useful to them on the field instead of as just a strategist.

So all in all, Konoha had lost a potential Kage and gained more hard workers.


	4. Chapter 4

"Well, we're here," came the call of a young blonde woman as a group of five teenagers walked into a small town on the border of Hi no Kuni and Kaze no Kuni.

"Yeah, now I can get Tayuya to the damn hospital and start my new life," a blonde boy in the group stated with a little regret noticeable in his voice.

"Yeah, anyway, we're going to go and book a hotel, you should get the bit… I mean Tayuya to a hospital then meet us in back here after you've done everything you need to okay," the black clad boy of the group said before they split themselves into two groups and headed in different directions.

"Hello can I help you?" the receptionist at the hospital asked as a pair of teenagers walked in (well one of them was being carried).

"Yeah, I found this girl trapped under a fallen tree a couple of days ago, I think her legs are broken," Naruto informed the receptionist.

Of course hearing the boy say that the girl's legs were possibly broken caused the receptionist to call for a doctor immediately. It wasn't long before Tayuya was taken for an examination.

Naruto hadn't really bothered about staying, he wanted to get a break from the girls constant verbal abuse.

So here he was walking along the street with his wallet Gama-chan in hand, looking for some clothes that wouldn't cause him to be spotted from over a mile away. I mean sure, he had an unhealthy love of orange, but even he realised that he couldn't continue to wear NEON orange and live.

So here he was walking around town trying to find a clothes store that appealed to him when he realised that Temari was walking along the same street.

"Hey Temari!" he shouted out causing her to turn to him.

"Oh, Naruto what are you doing here?"

"Uh, I think my clothes might cause me to get killed, do you think you could help me?" he asked her with hope clear in his voice.

"I don't see why not, I mean it's not like Kankurō gave a time for us to meet up," she replied before they walked into a clothes store.

Gaara and Kankurō were waiting patiently by the front gate of the town when they saw Temari walk towards them with another blonde. The two nearly didn't recognise him now he was no longer wearing his hideous orange jumpsuit.

His new attire consisted of a pair of black combat boots, a pair of black cargo pants held up by a tan leather belt with a silver skull as it's buckle and a form fitting long sleeved white shirt covered with an open, short sleeve, black button up shirt.

"Okay then, I'll take that," Kankurō stated as he pointed at Naruto "as you were buying some new clothes, about time too."

"Yeah, sorry about that," Naruto said apologetically.

"It's okay, I was planning on getting you some new clothes first anyway, you really needed them if you don't have a full team backing you up," Kankurō stated calmly.

"We've also tested his affinity… he's a wind type," Temari informed Kankurō.

"That's good, it means you can actually teach him something," the older of the two brothers claimed.

"So are we going to train?" Naruto asked the trio.

"Oh, yeah come on, let's get to a clearing," Kankurō said as the group left the area.

It didn't take the group long to find a clearing, where they immediately got serious.

"Okay, Naruto, we will be trying to teach you the basics of nature manipulation and puppetry, do you have any questions?" Temari was the first to speak. When she noticed him shaking his head to indicate that he didn't have any questions, she continued, "Okay, nature manipulation and puppetry each take years to learn, even longer to master, so we're just going to teach you the basics so that you can continue to practice after we've returned to Suna. First things first, in order to use Fūton jutsu you must first be capable of creating Fūton chakra, you will have to try and visualise your chakra spinning against itself to create an edge, the finer the edge the sharper the Fūton chakra, if you get the manipulation right you should be capable of cutting through anything, from say a leaf to a rock," when Temari had finished her explanation she walked over to a tree and pulled a leaf off of it before saying "I want you to try to cut this leaf with your chakra."

She was definitely surprised when the blonde in front of her placed his hands in a cross seal and shouted "Tajū kage bunshin no jutsu" before the clearing was filled with approximately a thousand Naruto copies.

"Uh, Naruto, why did you waste your chakra like that," Temari deadpanned.

"Eh heh, before I met Tayuya, I sorta discovered that I learn whatever my clones learn when they disperse," when he told the siblings this, their eyes widened in realisation, he could train his skills for several years in a single day.

The group of Naruto's each pulled a leaf from a tree and started doing the exercise, and just as Naruto was about to start attempting the exercise himself, Temari pulled him to the side.

"Naruto, you do realise that with your clones learning the exercise, you would be better off using this time to train your body right?"

"heh heh, I guess I didn't really think about that," admitted the blonde.

"Well then, give me 500 laps of the clearing followed by 500 push ups, then 500 sit ups, 500 squats then repeat until I say so!" commanded the Suna girl.

It had been five hours and Naruto's training for the day had finished. To put it simply he was completely exhausted, Temari had kept ordering him to increase his speed, which in turn caused his muscles to burn and to make matters worse, all of his clones had dispersed at the same time, giving him 5000 hours of experience in an instant. Of course this caused him to pass out on the spot, but not for long. When he woke up he attempted to cut a leaf with his chakra and found that he was capable of doing it almost instantly.

After that revelation he decided that he definitely needed something to eat. The meal was uneventful, with the only noteworthy thing being Naruto complaining about lack of ramen.

After finishing the meal, the Suna siblings led him to the hotel they had booked, and once in his room, he immediately collapsed on the bed before starting to sleep like a log.

The next morning found Naruto waking up early, feeling completely refreshed from his previous night of training. After getting a quick breakfast he decided to pay Tayuya a visit to see how things were.

"Hey Tayuya, how ya doing?" the blonde asked quietly as he entered her hospital room.

"Oh I'm just as fucking great as can be considering my fuckin legs are broken!" she nearly screamed at him.

"Sorry, anyway, do you know when you'll be discharged?"

"Not a fuckin clue."

"Oh, anyway, I'm going to be training with Temari and Kankurō until you're better, or the end of the week, whichever comes first, then when you're ready to go, well I'll think of something," Naruto explained his plan to her gaining him a blank expression.

"If you're learning ninja skills then why the fuck don't you just become a fuckin mercenary?" the redhead asked the obvious question.

"I wasn't really thinking that far ahead," the blonde admitted earning a 'I'm fucked' from the former Oto nin, "Oh come on I'm not that bad," he almost shouted in protest.

"Not that bad, NOT THAT BAD! You stupid motherfucker! You aren't even fucking thinking of what the fuck you're going to do next, you need a fuckin plan you stupid prick, otherwise we're just going to get in an even shittier situation that we are already in!" she wasn't exactly happy with him at the moment.

Naruto was about to respond but decided against it, after all, she was right.

"Sorry, I've never actually had to plan anything before, it was always just shout that I would become Hokage and work my ass off when nobody would help me, I guess I should think of what I'm going to do , after today's training," it was easy to identify the dejected tone his voice took when he voiced his thoughts, then again Tayuya didn't exactly care.

"Yeah you better fuckin think of something," she threatened.

"Hai, anyway I gotta get going, you know, got training to do and all," and with that he left the room to continue his training for the day.

"Hey guys, am I late?" Naruto shouted out as he arrived at the clearing they had picked for training.

"Dude, we're not running a schedule, you couldn't be late if you tried," Kankurō decided to inform the blonde causing him to scratch the back of his head sheepishly.

"Anyway, today your clones are going to learn about puppetry, starting with chakra strings, after all, you can't use puppets without any strings to pull," the older boy informed the younger of the two.

"Okay then, making chakra strings is simple, you just eject chakra from the tip of your finger and condense it as much as possible, that's what gives it the strength to interact with objects like puppets. The biggest difficulty isn't forming the strings but controlling them, since while you move the chakra, you also have to make sure you keep it compressed or it will just give out on you, that is why puppeteers are usually trained from a very young age, it gives them more time to get the multitasking down," at the word multitasking, Naruto dropped his head, he was never any good at that, even with his clones.

Speaking of clones, after listening to Kankurō's lecture (well it felt like that to him), he immediately created approximately a thousand Kage Bunshin, which immediately started to try and form chakra strings, as Naruto started to do his physical conditioning.

It was lunchtime and Naruto was exhausted, since the group had decided to get something to eat, Naruto had decided to disperse his clones to find out if they made any progress.

He was amazed to find that most of the clones had managed to move the strings for at least a couple of seconds before their concentration gave out and the strings dispersed. Of course, when Naruto had attempted it after the clones had dispersed, he was surprised to find that he didn't even have to concentrate on maintaining the shape and could focus solely on moving the string, which proved to be just a little harder.

Of course Kankurō couldn't believe just how quickly the clones got it, it was almost like they had done it before.

"_I can't believe how easy it is to keep my chakra strings in shape, it's almost like the Rasengan only without the spinning, wait, it IS the Rasengan without the spinning!" _Naruto realised him his head as the group sat down for lunch.

"Hey Kankurō, I just figured out how I learned how to use chakra strings so quickly, ero-sennin taught me this jutsu called the Rasengan, I just realised that the two techniques are almost identical in the way they're performed, except the Rasengan has more to it than chakra strings," the blonde explained to the older boy.

"That explains it, and to think, you didn't even realise it until now," the black clad Suna nin chuckled out.

"Hey, to be fair chakra strings are just compressed strings of chakra, the Rasengan is a compressed ball of spinning chakra," Naruto decided to informed his sensei for the day.

"Okay, I'll let you off this time, just because of how different the technique must look, but just remember that unless you have a good excuse then be prepared to get tormented if you ever say something stupid again."

"Kankurō, shut up and eat before I convince Gaara that you are a valid target to kill," Temari ordered her slightly younger brother before he grated on the last of her nerves.

And with that the quintet returned to eating with Gaara remaining quiet yet again.

So the week passed by with Naruto training under Temari one day and Kankurō the next.

Utilising kage bunshin he was capable of getting the basics of both of their styles down. He managed to learn a single Fūton jutsu (Kamaitachi no Jutsu) even though he couldn't use it to its full potential without buying a battle fan.

His work in puppetry however was a completely different situation. After being taught how a puppet works (using chakra strings to pull internal mechanisms that activate the various traps throughout the puppet) he quickly managed to get the hang of it, even if he could only control one at a time.

Right now though, Tayuya was being discharged from the hospital and as such, the Suna siblings decided to return to Suna, and it's not like they had much left to teach him.

"Well, I guess I'll see ya around, I'll be sure to visit every now and then, who knows, I might find some work in Suna," Naruto said to the Suna siblings as they stood by the villages front gate.

"Yeah don't be a stranger, anyway are you sure you don't want a puppet off me?" Kankurō asked.

"Yeah, what would your sensei say if he found out you gave away village techniques?" the blonde boy replied, after all, handing out village techniques was technically a crime and the only reason the siblings did so was because of a sense of debt they had because of Gaara.

"He's right Kankurō, anyway, I do hope you visit regularly, Gaara is much happier around you, even if he doesn't show it," Temari decided to say her piece.

"Goodbye for now, Uzumaki Naruto, my friend," the redhead stated before the group turned to leave the village.

"Yeah, I'll see you guys around, after all, I am going to be the greatest mercenary the world has ever seen!" and with that final goodbye from Naruto, the trio headed back to Suna.

"Now to find the bitch," the blonde mumbled under his breath before starting his search for Tayuya.


	5. Chapter 5

"_Shit! Yoroi!" shouted a young man with spiky brown hair and a pair of circular glasses resting on the ridge of his nose. Behind the glasses a pair of eyes lacking iris and filled with fear looked on as his partner burst into a flesh ridden torrent of blood and organs._

_Turning his head to the cause of his partners demise, he saw the crimson eyes of a young blonde as a red aura formed around him, giving off the impression of a fox with nine tails, before the being flicked it's wrist and the spectacled man's world bled to darkness._

XXX

"AAARRRGGGHHH!" the young blonde screamed as he jolted upright from his nightmare.

After Tayuya had recovered they had had a little argument and Naruto had eventually agreed that it wasn't a good idea to go anywhere that he had been before, after all those ROOT ANBU would look in those places first, so he would be safer if he avoided those places until he was sure he could defend himself.

So the duo had set off to Umi no Kuni, where they ended up taking a contract to stop a monster from terrorising the land. Things had turned out slightly more complicated when the redhead had informed Naruto of the existence of one of Orochimaru's labs, run by a man called Amachi.

The pair had a run in with a pair of Oto genin who had been assigned to the area, after a difficult battle, the Oto shinobi managed to escape, though his travelling companion managed to show them to the research centre, they ended up getting into another fight with the duo, except this time, they managed to piss the blond off enough for him to reveal his secret project that he had kage bunshin working on while they were walking, which was the reason for his nightmares.

The sheer brutal efficiency of his technique was sickening in his mind, and it made him fear for his humanity as he couldn't help but compare himself with the beast in his stomach.

Eventually the pair managed to complete the mission and earn a bit of money, which was spent on getting groceries and new clothes for the girl since she only had the pair of pants and jacket she bought at the village the Suna siblings trained Naruto earlier.

The blonde had been having the same nightmare for weeks, and even with the genjutsu mistresses harsh words concerning the reality of shinobi and mercenary life, he was still having difficulty sleeping.

As he sat there panting, the flap to his tent opened, revealing a dishevelled redhead with murder in her eyes.

"Will you shut the fuck up! I'm trying to get some fuckin sleep and your fuckin screaming is pissing me off!" she shouted at him as he regulated his breathing.

"Sorry, but that wasn't exactly a normal first kill," he said quietly after his breathing returned to normal.

"Tough shit, now shut the fuck up or I'll rip your fuckin balls off!" she threatened him before leaving the tent and heading back to sleep.

"Damn, she's a fuckin psycho," the blonde muttered to himself before attempting to get back to sleep.

After what seemed like eternity, the sun rose and with it, so did the blonde who couldn't relax enough to sleep.

After waking up his companion, earning a punch to the gut, the duo performed their morning routine, which involved getting some breakfast and doing some warm-ups while some bunshins packed up their camp.

When they had finished their warm ups, the pair started walking towards a small town they had picked on a map. After some discussion, the pair (well Tayuya) had decided that they should avoid anywhere that the blond was known, since the chances of those ROOT shinobi searching for him in such places was VERY high and he was NOT ready to face those people yet.

XXX

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" the blond asked as the duo entered a small town in Kiba no Kuni1.

"Look shithead, there is no fuckin way I'm going to lose anymore fuckin sleep because of your pansy ass having nightmares just because you killed a pair of motherfuckers!" the redhead practically shouted at him.

"But how is killing more people going to help?"

"It's fuckin called desensitization, it's the most fuckin important thing for a fuckin shinobi or mercenary."

"Uuhh what does desensitization mean?" Naruto asked causing Tayuya to pause, before turning to face him.

"Are you really that fuckin stupid?"

"Hey! I'm not stupid! Just poorly educated!"

"So you're saying that I have to fuckin educate you, great, that's just what I needed, to fuckin teach some retard," the former Oto nin muttered under her breath, "anyway, desensitization means to get fuckin used to something so it doesn't fuckin affect you."

"Wait! Are you trying to tell me that you're trying to get me to enjoy killing?!"

"No, I'm fuckin trying to get you to not care about killing people!"

"…"

"But isn't that wrong?"

"Just shut the fuck up before I rip your fuckin balls off," she growled out as they reached the outside of the mayors office, before the duo entered to see if there was anything that needed doing.

XXX

"So our job is to save some villagers from a group of bandits that are hiding out somewhere in the area?" Naruto asked the redhead as the pair started to search the area.

"Yeah… but then you gotta kill the fuckers so they won't kidnap another fucking person," came the more subdued than usual reply from the former oto-nin.

"Oh… HEY! What do ya mean I gotta kill them!" the blond shouted out as soon as he realized the wording of the statement.

"You're the one that fuckin needs to get fuckin used to killing, not me."

Looking at the redhead for a few seconds, Naruto had to concede the point, she had no problems with killing, while he had nightmares from it.

"So… what's the plan?" he asked after several seconds.

"Isn't it fuckin obvious?"

"Huh?"

"(sigh) think about it shithead, what sorta shit can each of us do?"

"Let's see… I can make a lot of copies of myself, make a spinning ball of chakra , cut people with chakra and make strings out of chakra… you can use genjutsu and… what else can you do?" he asked after thinking about it for a few seconds.

"You don't fuckin need to know anymore to make a fuckin plan dipshit!"

"_Alright… let's see… if I just charge in then the hostages could get hurt, if I sneak in then how do I get them out without being seen? Unless I use Kage bunshin to cover their escape… but then I might need that chakra later… damn it, what else is there? There must be a way to hide the captives without them getting hurt… wait... GENJUTSU! Tayuya can use a genjutsu on them!"_ he thought to himself before forming the outlines of a plan in his head.

"Let's see, when we get there, you can cast a genjutsu on the bandits while I get the hostages out, before coming back to… kill the bandits," he said, his head falling at the last part.

"And how the fuck are you going to kill them all?" the redhead asked.

"Cut their throats while they're under the genjutsu," the blond said hopefully.

"Fuck no! You're going to use your little technique! Slicing some fuckers throat and killing 'em with that are two completely fuckin different things!" she shouted at him.

"But…"

"But nothing! You fuckin made that technique, you WILL fuckin well use it!"

"Hai Tayuya…" he claimed as his eyes dropped to the ground in despair.

XXX

When the duo finally found the bandits hideout, Naruto remembered something he had forgotten about earlier.

"Uh… Tayuya, your genjutsu is sound based right?" he asked cautiously, before she reached into her pocket and threw something at him.

Quickly catching the offending items, he quickly realised exactly what they were… earplugs.

"Uh… thanks," he said quickly before putting them in his ears and waiting for the girl to start playing.

After the flute touched her lips, the bandits began to fall to their knees all over the place, which Naruto took as his cue to rescue the hostages.

Fortunately there weren't that many, so it didn't take long for the blond to safely evacuate the prisoners thanks to the redheads genjutsu.

After everyone was safely removed from the area, the blond proceeded to meet the redhead to inform her of the stage they were at, at which point she stopped playing.

"Hey! Why'd you stop playing?"

"Two reasons shithead… one you can't use your fuckin technique properly against shit if they're like that and two… I'm fuckin tired! Now go and kill them already!" she shouted causing him to turn towards the 70 or so bandits that were currently getting readjusted with reality.

"_Alright Naruto… you can do this… just focus chakra at the tip of your fingers and make a solid line joining each finger to the same one on the other hand," _as he thought this, long strings of chakra began to connect his fingers, until there were five long chakra strings connecting his hands together, _"alright… now just focus on making it small and fine… small and fine," _the strings began to narrow until they were just a hair thick, _"and now… just focus on converting it to Fūton… Fūton," _and with that last bit of thought, the chakra strings had gone from ropes that could grasp things, to razor sharp wires that could cut almost anything.

Putting most of his concentration on keeping the strings right, the blond ran forward, shaping the strings to flow behind him as he charged, before flinging them at the now completely orientated bandits.

He tried to block out the carnage that followed as his technique sliced a person into nothing more than a pile of blood soaked chunks of flesh, before doing the same to each bandit that followed.

In less than a minute the bandit camp was reduced to nothing more than a blood soaked clearing, with countless slabs of flesh littering the maroon coloured dirt. Only two victims escaped the butchering.

When all the bandits had been slaughtered, Naruto couldn't stop himself from emptying the contents of his stomach at the massacre he had just committed.

"Fuckin hell… I wasn't expecting it to be THIS bloody," Tayuya claimed as she walked out of the tree line, looking a little paler than usual, obviously not used to the sheer brutality of the scene.

"At least you only had to watch... I actually did the damn thing," the blond said as he heaved his guts up.

"Well… think of it this way, after this it should be fuckin easy to kill the odd fuckin person here and there."

"Screw you," Naruto said quietly.

"Pfft, in your fuckin dreams shithead. Come on, you've wasted enough fuckin time as it is, stop fuckin spewing your fuckin guts up and get moving!" the genjutsu mistress shouted, causing the blond to get to his feet and shakily make his way back to the town with his travelling companion.

XXX

Walking into a town when your clothes are drenched in drying blood isn't as easy as you might think. Everywhere you go, you are either stopped by guards trying to make sure you aren't injured or going to cause trouble, or getting stopped by complete strangers attempting to see if you're injured and need help… especially if you're walking like Naruto.

"Why won't they leave me alone?" Naruto said irritably as the duo made their way towards the mayor's office with the former captives in tow.

"You're fuckin drenched in blood and walking like a fuckin corpse… of course people will see if you're alright," Tayuya stated irritably.

"But isn't it obvious I would've already been stopped by now?"

"Civilians don't normally think, they just do."

"…it's annoying."

"So are you, now shut up and let me do the talking," the redhead said as they reached the mayor's office to get their pay.

XXX

After receiving their 60,000 ryō pay check and getting something to eat, the duo rented a pair of rooms in a local inn and got some much needed rest.

That night Naruto's dreams were filled with the slaughter that had taken place earlier… though he didn't wake up from them this time.

1 Land of fangs


	6. Chapter 6

"Well that last job sure paid fucking great for doing fuck all," Tayuya said as she sat at a table in the inn they were staying at, while counting the money from their last mission.

"Yeah… and the best part is that I didn't even have to kill anyone," the blond replied as he sat opposite her eating a small bowl of ramen at a sedate pace… after all, it just couldn't compare to Ichiraku's.

"Yeah, well as I recall you've already fuckin grown desensitized to the fuckin bloodshed you can cause," the redhead said with a small smirk.

"Yeah, yeah, that doesn't mean I like it though."

"Tch, as long as you don't fuckin hesitate to kill any shitheads that get in our fuckin way, then I don't give a fuck if you don't like it," she claimed as she finished counting the wads of cash and splitting them into a pair of even piles, before giving one to her partner, who immediately placed it in his toad wallet, "not that I'm complaining, but why the fuck don't you ever fuckin count your share?"

"Huh? Oh I do count it… I've always had to manage my own money so I've gotten to the point where I can figure out exactly how much I've got just by looking."

XXX

"So the jinchūriki is still alive, Danzō-sama will be relieved," a masked man said as he and the other three members of his team observed the duo sitting near a window, from a rooftop across the street.

Continuing to watch the duo, reading their lips like they had been taught, they noticed the redhead palm her face and shake her head before their target stood up and his lips moved in a very clear message, 'fuck you, I'm going to get some fresh air'.

"The targets leaving the inn, let's go," the leader stated, resulting in the group heading to the door, seeing the young blond exit the establishment before following him.

Eventually the blond left the bustling town and made his way into the forest surrounding the small town they were resting.

"The target is isolated, commencing ab" the leader stated, unable to finish before suddenly bursting into a torrent of blood as both him and everything around him was diced in an instant.

"You ROOT assholes just screwed with the wrong mercenary," Naruto stated as he looked straight at the remaining three, with eyes as cold as glaciers.

With a simple flick of his wrists, his razor sharp strings proceeded to jerk and flow, once again slicing everything in their path as they proceeded to surround the dodging ANBU, before caging them in and with a simple retraction, eliminate Danzō's puppets.

"That was pathetic, I was expecting more from ANBU," Naruto said coldly as he left the newly created clearing and headed back to the inn.

XXX

"So, who were the motherfuckers spying on us?" Tayuya asked as the blond returned to their table.

"ROOT, they've finally caught up with me," Naruto said quietly as he waited for the genjutsu mistress to finish her dessert.

"(sigh) did you kill those fuckers?"

"Yeah. If they've caught up to me now, then it's safe to assume that it's no longer safer to go to places I haven't before… so I want to go to Nami, I want to see some people there again."

"Alright then, we'll set off tomorrow," the redhead replied, causing the blond to let out a small chuckle, "what's so fuckin funny?"

"Sorry, it's just that that was the first time I've ever heard you say a sentence without swearing."

"Look here shithead, I can speak without fuckin swearing! Do you fuckin understand!" the foul mouthed redhead nearly shouted.

"Then stop swearing all the time."

"Why the fuck should I stop fuckin swearing?"

"To prove you can talk without it," Naruto stated, earning a glare off the redhead, "and if you prove you can talk without swearing for two months, I'll let you have a seventy five percent cut on the missions."

"(sigh) fine then, I'll stop fu- I'll stop swearing all the fu- all the time," she said, almost slipping up twice in just one sentence.

"_This is going to be fun," _the blond thought, waiting for her to make a full slip up to torment her about.

XXX

Sakura was exhausted. She had just finished her most gruelling training session with the Hokage and was simply trying to remain standing courtesy of her fatigue.

She knew why her training session was so harsh this time, Tsunade had once again attempted to appeal the daimyo's decision to banish Naruto from Hi no Kuni without success. And then there was the fact that Jiraiya's loyalty lay with Konoha and without his spy network, the village would fall apart, something he wasn't prepared to see happen.

Sakura herself understood that Jiraiya's network was vital to the smooth running of Konoha, however she didn't understand why he would just abandon Naruto after going so far as to teach him the Rasengan and Kuchiyose.

Letting her thoughts drift to her banished teammate, she couldn't help but let tears fall from her emerald eyes, remembering how she had begged him to bring Sasuke back but had done nothing to help, all because she was too weak.

Just like she was now. She might have gotten stronger, but she was still too weak in her mind.

So once again, she went to her bed and simply cried herself to sleep.

XXX

"What do you mean there is a new mercenary on the rise?" Tsunade asked her old teammate as he stood before her with a serious expression on his face.

"(sigh) they call this guy the 'shi no tenshi', apparently he has wiped out entire bandit camps without even touching a single victim… they say he simply dances and his enemies die," the old man told the drunkard of a Hokage.

"Crap… not only do we have Akatsuki taking missions to raise funds for whatever they're after, but now a new guy as well. Have you heard anything about Naruto?" the busty blond asked almost desperately.

"(sigh) I'm sorry Tsunade, I'm keeping my ears open, but I've not heard anything since he left, to be perfectly honest, I think Danzō could already have him," the white haired pervert told her with his head held low.

"Don't… you… dare say that!"

"I'm sorry Tsunade, but you have to admit that it is a distinct possibility."

"I refuse to believe that!"

"(sigh) You're going to have to face the reality sooner or later Tsunade… even if Danzō doesn't have Naruto, it's a harsh world and I don't think the gaki can survive on his own, especially with the skills he had when he left… if Danzō doesn't have him then the chances are that he is already dead," Jiraiya stated as he turned his back on the furious Kage and left her office.

XXX

Naruto was beginning to think his bet was a bad one. It had been two weeks and Tayuya hadn't sworn, the only consolation was that he still had six weeks for her to slip up and save his cut.

Then again, now that he thought about it, he didn't really need her anymore. Nearly every mission they had taken since the first massacre had been completed by Naruto without any assistance.

Realising that, Naruto began to question why he still travelled with the redhead. She did nothing but shout at him, count the money and swear… nothing that was actually helpful. Sure she was more aware than him, but that was something he was already working on with Kage bunshin playing hide and seek on a regular basis, simultaneously improving his awareness and stealth skills.

Realising this, he decided what he would do if he lost the bet.

XXX

"The fuck?" Tayuya said as soon as they arrived to the bridge that connected Nami with the mainland.

"Eh hem," came the response from the smirking blond.

"Fuck."

"Looks like I won the bet," Naruto said happily as he looked at the redhead.

"Fuck you Blondie. That isn't fair!" she shouted pointing towards the plaque that told everyone the name of the bridge.

"The name of the bridge caused you to swear?" Naruto asked, before looking at the plaque himself, "the great Naruto bridge… damn, I never thought they'd name it after me."

"You mean to tell me you didn't even know that there was a bridge named after you?"

"Yep. This is the first I've ever heard of this."

"(sigh) don't you have someone you want to see?"

"Yeah, let's go," Naruto said, finally over the idea that they had named the bridge after him, _'and I guess Tayuya hasn't realised that she's stopped swearing after three weeks of constantly having to catch herself before saying anything."_

XXX

Tazuna might have been getting too old to be doing all the work he was, but he was happy. Despite having to work thirteen hour days in an attempt to get Nami back on track, he could see the country recovering from Gato's rule before his eyes.

Where once the streets were filthy and filled with homeless children and sick elders, they were now clean and the homeless now had their homes back. The stores that were once deprived of even the most basic of supplies were now stocked with meat and produce from all around the world.

The buildings that had been neglected due to the construction of the bridge were still being repaired but the number had decreased to less than ten in the entire country.

However what was most important, was Nami's finance. Now capable of selling its products without the ridiculous export charges that had been in place before allowed the country's balance to grow exponentially as they made the most of what they had.

Sitting in a chair in his family's home turned inn, Tazuna let out a contented sigh as he proceeded to down a few glasses of Sake after a long day of work.

"Father, you can't keep working like this, let the younger men do more," Tsunami said as she brought him a large meal.

"I do let the youngsters do a lot, but there's just so much that needs done that I can't just sit back and let them do it all alone… besides, what would Kaiza think if he saw me just sitting back and doing nothing to help the country I love?"

"You don't have to do nothing, just don't do so much, you're not a young man anymore, you can't keep pushing yourself," the dark haired woman scolded.

Before the conversation could continue, they were interrupted by the sound of their newly installed front door bell, indicating that someone had either entered or left.

"Wow… to think this place has become an Inn since I was last here, things sure have changed," a familiar voice sounded from the entrance, causing Inari to suddenly perk up, "Hey! Tazuna, Tsunami, Inari? Are any of you here?"

"In here!" Inari shouted excitedly.

Soon the door opened revealing a certain whiskered face they hadn't seen in a long time.

"Naruto, it's good to see you again," Tsunami said before giving the young blond a friendly hug.

"Nii-san!" the youngest shouted before latching onto the blonds legs, while Tazuna simply placed a hand on his head.

"Although it's good to see you again, what are you doing here?" the oldest in the room asked.

"Long story short, a bad guy tricked the daimyo into banishing me from Hi no Kuni so he could try and kidnap me. Right now I'm living as a mercenary with her," Naruto said pointing towards Tayuya, "following me."

"The Fuck you- ouch!" the redhead started to say before finding herself face first in the ground courtesy of an angry mother with a frying pan.

"Do not swear in front of my son! Inari, if I ever find you copying anything she says, you will wish Gato was still around!"

"I bet your glad I made you practice not swearing now huh?" the blond whispered to low for anyone but Tayuya to hear.

"For once, I'll agree with you."

"So Naruto, do you need a place to stay? If you do then you're always welcome here," the older woman told him with a kind smile.

"Thanks Tsunami, and if you ever need help just tell me and I'll do everything I can!"

"You've already done enough for us Naruto, even if we wanted to we couldn't ask you to do anymore."

"Even if you paid me?" Naruto asked, earning a contemplative look off the adults in the room, "what? I'm a mercenary, I usually get paid to do jobs, if you don't want me to help you as a friend then you can always hire me as a merc."

"I think we could accept that perspective," Tazuna said after contemplating what the blond had said.

"How long are you going to stay Nii-san?" Inari asked the older child.

"However long I feel like Inari," he responded ruffling the child's hair.

XXX

Two weeks later on the outskirts of Nami, we find a pair of men standing at the site of Momochi Zabuza's grave.

"Heh… to think the little devil would die in a shithole like this," the taller of the two said humorously.

"Are you going to take the sword?"

"Nah, it's just a piece of shit that would get in my way."

"Very well then, Zetsu confirmed that the Kyūbi jinchūriki is here, let's go Kisame."

"Sure thing Itachi."


	7. Chapter 7

Naruto had to admit that helping with the heavy lifting had definitely had positive effects on his body. Of course, the fact that he had managed to use his bunshin to improve his other skills meant that he was generally getting stronger at an unbelievable pace.

Tayuya on the other hand was sporting a few new bruise's courtesy of slipping up and swearing in front of Inari on a few occasions. While Naruto was busy helping out around town and training with his bunshins, Tayuya had proceeded to practice her skills in an attempt to make herself stronger. She realised that by now the blond was beginning to learn how to use his chakra as a radar, which in turn made her think over what she was contributing to the 'team'… not a lot.

It was because of this realisation that she had been working harder than she ever had before, if he decided to ditch her, then she ran the risk of not being capable of surviving against stronger enemies that might come after her.

Taking deep breathes due to her training, she quickly got her breathing and pulse back under control, at which point she decided to rest for awhile before resuming her training… however her plans changed when she heard a pair of voices in the distance.

"So how are we going to find it?"

"We make as much noise as we can… the Kyūbi is both weak and foolish, it will come to rescue the civilians, then we will capture it."

"Alright Itachi," Tayuya froze. She recognised that name and it scared her even more than Orochimaru, after all, she knew full well that Itachi was the name of the person that defeated him with a single glance… there was no way they could stand against him.

Moving as quietly as she could, the young redhead proceeded to make her way towards Tazuna's residence, where she was sure the blond would be found.

XXX XXX XXX

"NARUTO WE HAVE TO LEAVE NOW!" the genjutsu user shouted as she barged through the front door of the house turned inn.

"I'm sorry but Naruto isn't here," Tsunami said as she came from the kitchen, "I ran out of noodles and he offered to go into town and get some."

"SHIT! OWW! DAMMIT DON'T DO THAT!" the former Oto nin shouted upon receiving a hit to the skull courtesy of the dark haired mother.

"And why should I?" she never received an answer as the young girl ran full speed out of the door in an attempt to reach Naruto before the enemy.

XXX XXX XXX

Naruto was pissed. A flash flood had occurred out of nowhere, sweeping countless innocents away as he managed to jump just in time to avoid the wall of water which he was now standing on.

Now the main reason he was angry was simple, they were FAR too high to suddenly flood, leaving only one alternative, an attack.

"Well, well Itachi, looks like the jinchūriki was here after all," came a mocking call from a voice he recognised all too well.

"Hoshigaki Kisame," the blond growled out as he looked onto the roof of a store and immediately noticed the black robed forms of the Akatsuki duo.

"So you remembered my name huh, then again I doubt you'd forget me after the last time we met," the shark like man stated with a malicious grin stretching across his face.

"Before we do anything else, we will give you a choice Uzumaki Naruto, either come with us willingly, or this town will be exterminated after we subdue you," came the calm call of the traitorous Uchiha.

Naruto wanted to be angry, but he knew that against enemies like these two, doing so would only get him killed.

"Do you really think I'd believe you wouldn't destroy this town either way?" the Kyūbi's jailor asked before putting his fingers together and forming his signature attack.

Sensing chakra usage, both of the Akatsuki members dodged on reflex, their eyes widening when the roof they had just been standing on was sliced into several pieces.

Landing on opposite sides of the blond, Kisame hefted his chakra absorbing greatsword over his shoulder and in front of him while the Uchiha proceeded to activate his sharingan.

"Kisame, be careful, that attack is nothing more than chakra strings composed of Fūton type chakra," the genius Uchiha called over to his comrade in arms.

"Chakra strings made out of Fūton chakra? I see, the cutting ability of wind combined with the flexibility of puppetry, aren't you a smartass," the former Kiri nin stated as he estimated the threat level of the technique, eventually only getting the simple answer of 'it depends on the user'.

Both missing nin reacted with incredible speed when they noticed the blond flick his fingers, dodging the incoming attack as they regrouped above the blond, who jumped back and redirected his strings behind the red cloud members.

"Kisame, behind us!" the normally stoic Uchiha ordered, before grasping his partner and redirecting him to the large strings, which the chakra devouring greatsword easily cut through as the two were once again separated.

Itachi was shocked when he felt a pair of feet hit him, as the strings rejoined much closer to him.

"Goodbye Itachi," was the cold statement that left the blonds mouth as he kicked the genius of the Uchiha clan into his razor wire, slicing the red eyed ninja into several pieces… which suddenly vanished in a puff of smoke, "Kage Bunshin," Naruto muttered with wide eyes as he landed on the water, before immediately being dragged under by a hand that erupted from under the surface.

Looking at his assailant, Naruto noticed the cold sharingan of the legendary Uchiha and immediately did what his instincts told him to.

Kisame was shocked when he saw the chakra made canal twist into a whirlpool, before the surface exploded, ejecting a soaking wet jinchūriki and a dark haired Uchiha. The biggest difference between the two however was that while Naruto was gasping for air, Itachi was clutching the right side of his chest in agony as blood flowed through his fingers.

"Itachi, what the hell happened?!" the shark like man asked as he landed next to his stronger partner.

"It turns out that Uzumaki knows the Rasengan… if I had known I wouldn't have attempted to drag him under," the genius Uchiha informed the blue skinned man, "with the water restricting my movements, I was dragged directly into the attack, I was just lucky he hit the opposite side to my heart."

"Wow, looks like we might have to take him seriously after all," the sharp toothed criminal stated, earning a nod out of his partner.

"Tsukoyomi," came the quiet call of the family murderer as he opened his eyes, revealing the black, three pointed shuriken on a red background that represented his legendary Mangekyou Sharingan.

Suddenly, Naruto found himself in a strange world that almost looked like a photo's negative, with the older Uchiha standing in front of him.

"**Do you really think I would let you do this Uchiha?" **came a mocking voice that Naruto recognised as the fox that inhabited his stomach, before the world was flooded with the beasts red chakra and the red eyed ninja was forced out of the blonds mind.

Appearing back on the battle field, Naruto was surprised when he noticed the raven haired teen fall to his knees and clutch his eye with his free hand while the Zanbatou wielding nin looked on in shock.

"Dammit… and here I thought we would get an easy win when Itachi used that," the shark like man muttered as he kept an eye on the young blond, that is until he heard a large screeching, forcing him to turn around to look at the source of the noise and just succeeding in placing his bandaged sword in the way of an extremely dense ball of Fūton chakra.

Upon the blade being hit, the swordsman was thrown back as the bunshin carrying the attack dispersed in a puff of smoke.

Kisame couldn't believe the power of this attack, it was actually powerful enough to injure Samehada and get to him, the worst part however was that the sword was draining HIS chakra in order to repair itself, something it had NEVER had to do before.

Eventually the attack ceased, leaving a bloodied Kiri nin barely standing, while his once proud sword was literally whimpering in agony courtesy of the large chunk of missing flesh on its edge.

"D-Damn it…" the shark like Kiri nin managed to cough out as he felt his reserves reach genin levels for the first time since he got his hands on the sword.

"Sorry… but I can't let you leave here alive," the blue eyed blond stated calmly as he directed his wires around the duo of S-ranked criminals, before with a simple tug, both of the extremely dangerous individuals found themselves falling into several pieces, while the water that once flooded the area started to flow like it was supposed to.

Using regular chakra strings to retrieve the pieces of his opponents, Naruto couldn't help but marvel at his improvement since leaving Konoha, before he proceeded to seal the remains in a scroll using a Fūinjutsu that Kankurō had taught him in case he ever decided to get a puppet of his own.

"(sigh) well that went better than expected," the spiky haired blond muttered as he collapsed from exhaustion, after all, making two Kage bunshin the instant his Rasengan hit Itachi under the water was VERY difficult and using the upgraded Rasengan took its toll on him even if he only made one copy of himself.

"I can't believe you actually fought them," came a disbelieving voice that he recognised all too well.

"Sorry, but I couldn't let them kill everyone… but now, I think I need a nap," and with those words, the blond proceeded to fall asleep on top of the roof he had ended up on.

"Heh… you definitely are an idiot… but at least you live up to your title, little 'Shi no Tenshi'," Tayuya muttered to herself before picking up both the blond and his scroll up and taking him back to Tazuna's residence for some well deserved rest.

XXX XXX XXX

In the elemental nations, news spreads fast and within two days, every newspaper had the same story on the front cover, the death of Uchiha Itachi and Hoshigaki Kisame by the hands of the 'Shi no Tenshi'.

"WHAT!" came an enraged yell from within one of Otogakure's secret hideouts.

"My, my, what is all the racket about Sasuke-kun?" came the unconcerned question from a certain S-ranked traitor.

"What's the problem? WHAT'S THE PROBLEM! THIS IS THE PROBLEM!" the enraged Uchiha shouted as he shoved the newspaper in the Snake Sannin's face.

Orochimaru couldn't believe it, Uchiha Itachi had been killed, and not only that, but when he was fighting WITH his partner. Now Orochimaru might have been confident in his abilities, however he wasn't arrogant, he might of hated admitting it, but Itachi was stronger than him and if this 'Shi no Tenshi' character was capable of defeating him AND Kisame at the same time, then the snake knew that this person was more than deadly enough to kill him as well.

However that wasn't his most pressing concern at the moment.

"Well then Sasuke-kun, it looks like your revenge has been stolen from you by this stranger, so what will you do now?" the yellow eyed traitor asked, hoping that he receives the answer he wants.

"What will I do? That's simple… I will make this 'Shi no Tenshi regret stealing my vengeance… then I will kill him," the raven haired child stated as his eyes were flooded with hatred he had never felt before.

XXX XXX XXX

Sitting at the table within Tsunami's kitchen, Naruto couldn't help but think over the conversation he had had with the Kyūbi earlier.

To think that it feared being extracted and used like some pawn, then again, the fox did have a sense of pride and being extracted just to be put on a leash wasn't something it would do willingly… now breaking free on the other hand is a completely different matter altogether.

Regardless of the fact that the kitsune had saved his life, Naruto hadn't asked it to and as such told it straight up that he wouldn't do anything for it because of that… which really surprised him when it told him it did it for its own reasons and didn't expect him to pay it back.

"Naruto-kun, have you read the paper?" Tsunami asked the blond, knocking him out of his thoughts.

"Huh? Oh, no I haven't," came his disorientated reply before he took the paper he was passed and looked at the front page, his eyes widening to comic proportions when he read the headline.

Quickly reading through the article, he blinked several times when he read the name of the killer.

"Hey Tayuya? Do you know why they said that Shi no Tenshi guy killed them?" he asked curiously.

"Huh? Because you did," she told him straight up.

"Yeah I know I did but why did they give the credit to that guy?" the blond asked.

"Uh, you do realise that the few bandits that escaped your first massacre called YOU that… right?" the red head asked him bluntly.

"…"

"…"

"YOU MEAN I'M THE SHI NO TENSHI!"

"Yeah."

"…"

"Dammit… I was really looking forward to fighting the guy."


	8. Chapter 8

Quietly sitting on the ridge overlooking Nami no Kuni, a familiar whiskered blond couldn't help but think back on his last fight. If he hadn't caught his pursuers off guard then he wouldn't have succeeded in killing them… though he would admit that his chakra string technique was a major factor in their defeat.

What ran through the blonds mind however was the fact that the next team Akatsuki sent after him would be prepared for a dangerous fight and if the last two were anything to go by then he would definitely need to increase his abilities.

That was the reason behind the new additions to his wardrobe, a simple black trench coat and a pair of gloves. What made them special though was what he had sown into them… some of the scales of the greatsword Samehada. It came as quite a shock to him to discover the nature of that weapon, one massive, smooth skinned, leech like creature, with hundreds of smaller, scale shaped leeches, each one capable of eating and storing chakra if it wanted to.

He would happily admit that it took awhile to figure out how to get them to accept him as their master… which it turned out was nothing more than let them drain his chakra for long enough, though they had stopped eating his, they had started to eat the chakra of everyone around them… including Tayuya who decided quite quickly that the scales were surprisingly dangerous.

So here he was contemplating his next move, occasionally turning to face the graves of the people that taught him more about being a ninja than anything else ever did.

"Heh, it's kinda funny isn't it Zabuza? After all that talk of ninja's being tools of their villages and how I wouldn't be like the rest… I'm not one anymore," Naruto couldn't help but mutter to himself as he turned to face the grave marked with a massive cleaver, "you know, thinking about it, I hate the way the villages treat their shinobi, acting like they're just tools that should kill all their emotions… (sigh) maybe it was for the best that I got banished huh?"

The continued to stare at the sword before letting out a mirthless chuckle as he accepted that there would be no response, not even a slight breeze that might indicate that someone was watching over him from the next life.

"Oh well… I guess it's about time I left this place, see ya around Zabuza," was the last statement to leave the blonds mouth as he quietly walked away from the ridge and back to the small town.

XXX XXX XXX

Deep within the walls of Amegakure, a small group was gathering in person for the first time in several years.

"WHAT THE HELL DO YA MEAN SOMEONE OFFED ITACHI AND KISAME?!" came a loud shout from one of the group. He was a young man with long blond hair tied into a ponytail and a strange device covering one of his eyes. On his head was a slashed out Iwa hitae-ate while a long cloak with several red clouds covered the rest of his body.

"**What I mean is that they were killed when hunting the Kyūbi jinchūriki**," a strange man split in two vertically stated calmly. One half of him was white and possessed an eye with a yellow iris, while the other half was pitch black and possessed an eye that was yellow all the way through. His hair was green and he wore the normal Akatsuki robe like all the others… although the plant like protrusions extending from his shoulders made him look even stranger than his split appearance.

"GODDAMMIT! I WANTED TO BE THE ONE WHO KILLED ITACHI!" the blond shouted angrily again causing the rest of the group to stare at him blankly.

"Shut up Deidara," a man with orange hair and countless piercings littering his face. He was wearing a slashed out Ame hitae-ate, however the feature that stood out the most about him was his eyes… they possessed a metallic sheen while a ripple like design made them look even more unique than the Uchiha's legendary sharingan, "it could be pure luck that Itachi and Kisame ran into the shi no tenshi while searching for the jinchūriki. However from now on you must take care to avoid confrontation with that mercenary, we cannot afford to lose any more members before collecting the bijū."

"Well if we have to avoid this guy then what does he look like un?" the newly dubbed Deidara asked the others.

"**How should I know? I told Itachi and Kisame were the jinchūriki was as soon as I located it, once that was over with I started looking for the Iwa jinchūriki so I never saw the guy, **or girl**, that doesn't matter,**" the black half of the plant like man said with a minor interruption from the white half.

"Tch, then how are we supposed to avoid this guy un?" the blond asked, earning a shrug in response from the plant.

"Who cares about avoiding this bastard, I say we kill the fucker!" a man with slicked white hair and red eyes shouted. Outside of the usual Akatsuki robes he wore a round pendant with a simple triangle decorating it while a massive, three bladed scythe was strapped to his back.

"If you come across him then feel free to try and kill him, just make sure that Kakuzu doesn't die either," the orange haired man stated earning a psychotic grin off the white haired man, "however you are NOT to waste time actively hunting him down, do you understand?"

"Tch, fine," the red eyed man muttered with a noticeable amount of annoyance in his voice.

"Is that everything? If so then I need to get back to work fundraising," a large man wearing a full face mask and a slashed out taki hitae-ate as a bandana asked. The sclera of his eyes were red while his iris was green.

"Not quite. Since we are all here I believe it would be appropriate to inform you that there has been a change in plans," the ripple eyed man stated seriously, drawing the attention from the rest of the group, "because we cannot tell whether the shi no tenshi is hunting us down or not, Kakuzu will continue to raise our funds, however the rest of you will focus on capturing the jinchūriki for now."

"What about Itachi and Kisame's targets un?" Deidara asked in curiosity.

"They are open to anyone… now that is all," the obvious leader stated, causing the rest of the group to quietly leave the room.

XXX XXX XXX

"See ya Tazuna, we'll be sure to come back someday," Naruto told the old man as he and his redheaded partner prepared to leave via the massive bridge that connected the island with the continent.

"Make sure you do brat! And we'll be sure to make enough work to hire you for!" the sake swigging bridge builder shouted happily earning a smile off the whiskered mercenary before he turned and left Nami once again.

"So where are we going now S class killer?" Tayuya asked with a little bit of mockery present in her voice.

"Well it has been a few months since we split from Kankurō, Temari and Gaara, so I was thinking about perhaps heading over to Suna for a while," Naruto admitted to the redhead, earning a slight twitch of annoyance off the girl, "is there something wrong with that idea?"

"No… it just means that I'll have to put up with 'that' bitch again," the former Oto nin admitted with a hint of anger in her tone.

"What's wrong with Temari?!" the spiky haired youth snapped with a distinct amount of anger present in his tone, surprising the girl in the process.

"Oh I'm sorry… but are you forgetting that she tried to crush me with a fucking tree?!" came the sarcastic response.

"Oh yeah… I forgot about that," the azure eyed blond said blankly, causing the redhead to grit her teeth in irritation.

"So… now that you're strong enough to kill S class criminals, what are you planning on doing in general?" Tayuya asked him in an attempt to calm herself down.

There was silence as the blond boy proceeded to think over his circumstances.

"Thinking about it, I only managed to beat Itachi and Kisame because they underestimated me… and even then it took everything I had to kill them," he admitted seriously as he clenched his fist, "so I need to get stronger before Akatsuki come after me again, otherwise there is no guarantee I'll survive my next battle with them."

"And how do you plan on getting stronger huh?" came the million dollar question from the redhead.

"How? The only way I know how to of course, take what I know and figure out a way of using it better. I left a few hundred bunshin near Nami to brainstorm for a while, so I should get some new ideas by the end of the day," the whiskered blond stated calmly, causing the girl to look at him strangely.

"You know, if I didn't know better, I'd think you were a completely different person to the baka that saved my life," she claimed as she turned back to the road and calmly continued to walk along the road they were traversing.

"I'll take that as a compliment," Naruto stated after hearing the girls statement.

"Tch, don't let it get to your head asshole," was all the young girl said in response as the duo continued to walk in the general direction of Sunagakure.

XXX XXX XXX

Just outside of Nami no Kuni, a large group of Kage bunshin were attempting to think up new ways of using what they knew in an attempt at creating a new technique for the blond to use… preferably one that would compliment his signature technique instead of one that would waste his time away from the deadly attack.

There was one bunshin in particular though that was currently thinking about the only thing that his former sensei had taught him… the tree climbing exercise.

He remembered seeing Sasuke utilize the technique during fights, using it to pick up a kunai with his feet instead of his hand. However it was what the dark haired boy had done next that made Naruto think, what happens when you put too much chakra into the technique? It makes your feet push off the tree… fast.

And with that in mind, the bunshin dispersed itself, passing the memories onto both the original and the rest of the group.

So with that in mind, the remaining bunshin proceeded to start practicing putting too much chakra into their feet, with the sole intention of developing their own (admittedly basic) high speed movement technique.

XXX XXX XXX

Tayuya had to admit that her combat orientated partner was making far too many awkward faces during their day of travelling… it was almost like he was constantly getting hurt some way.

"Alright, will you please tell me why the hell you've been making those faces all fuckin day?" she suddenly asked as they sat near a campfire in a small clearing, causing the boy to pick his head up and look at her blankly.

"What faces?" came the clueless response from the blond as he continued to eat the meal that had been prepared by the redhead… though it did make him a little suspicious since she didn't normally do anything useful.

"The ones that make you look like you're getting punched in the face!" the former Oto nin almost shouted, causing the blond to think hard.

"Oh… that was just my training going badly," he admitted after realising what she was talking about.

"What went wrong?" she asked as she grew curious over what sort of problem he could be having with his training.

"Uh… well you see… I'm sorta trying to make my own teleportation jutsu," the spiky haired boy told her as he began to blush as he grew uncomfortable about where the conversation was going.

"And what's the problem with that?" Tayuya asked, causing the blond to suddenly turn as red as a tomato and mumble something incoherent, "eh? What the fuck did you say? You're being so quite I doubt even a fuckin mouse could hear you."

"My bunshins keep crashing into trees," and with that statement, Naruto waited… though not for particularly long.

"HAHAHA!"

"Stop laughing."

"And why the hell should I do that?" the young girl asked as she continued to laugh, though quieter than before.

"Because it's not as easy as it sounds! I mean I'm having to use a shit load of chakra in my feet to get to that sort of speed so I don't really know just how little I can use while still using the technique!"

"So you don't know how to stop yourself? Well that's crap, especially since you're only moving in a straight line," Tayuya stated as she managed to get a hold of herself.

"Huh? How did you know I can only go in a straight line?"

"Because that's how teleportation jutsu work. They let you move really fast but that speed also means that your reflexes can't keep up with you until you stop… so they're easy to counter," she explained seriously, causing the blond to deflate.

"(sigh) well that's annoying…" was all Naruto said before his eyes suddenly widened to epic proportions.

"Alright, what's going through that thick skull of yours now?"

"One of my bunshin has just managed to avoid a tree," Naruto said with a maniacal grin.

"And you're getting this worked up over something that simple?"

"Not really… it's more to do with the fact that I've just invented a teleportation jutsu that DOESN'T go in a straight line," and with that statement, the slightly older girls eyes widened comically as well.

"Hold on just a minute! What do you mean by that?!" she shouted, ready to beat him down if he was joking.

"That one of my bunshin has just advanced my movement to a whole new level," came the reply from the whiskered boy as he proceeded to finish off the food she had made, "anyway, I'm going to go to bed… see ya in the morning."

"Wait! How the fuck can you turn during a teleportation jutsu?" the redhead asked in confusion, causing the blond to face her and let out a small smile.

"Chakra strings," was all he said before entering his tent, causing confusion to appear on the girls face as she wondered how chakra strings could help with high speed movement.


	9. Chapter 9

"Well that was a little annoying," Naruto muttered as he looked at the large number of severed body parts that lay before him.

Once again he had run across a group of ROOT operatives… it actually made him wonder just how many soldiers the old warhawk had under his thumb. Quickly putting that thought out of his head, he did something he had started doing when he killed ROOT ninja… seal their pieces in a large scroll he kept sealed in a tattoo on his wrist.

"What did you expect? we've been running across these guys since before we went to Nami so of course they're gonna keep showing up," the redheaded companion said in disbelief.

"Sorry, but I was kinda hoping that I'd killed most of them by now," the spiky haired blond retorted with a noticeable amount of irritation in his voice.

"(sigh) You might not realise it, but Danzō has been kidnapping children for a LONG time, if what I heard is right then he managed to get his hands on several hundred children during the Kyūbi's attack when you were born," the young girl told him seriously.

"Let me guess… they were believed to have been killed in the attack right?" the whiskered boy asked her with a hint of sadness in his voice, earning nothing more than a nod of confirmation, "you know, that just make me feel bad about killing them, they might have been good guys if it wasn't for that bastard brainwashing them."

"Tch, you'd better not start letting them go or else we will be screwed," the slightly older redhead said with obvious irritation at his statement.

"Just because I'm feeling a little bad about killing them doesn't mean I'll stop, besides, I want to be able to post this scroll ya know," the blond said with a grin as he put his scroll back in the seal on his wrist.

"You want to post it? The hell is wrong with you?" she couldn't understand what he was thinking, it wasn't everyday someone decided to post a scroll containing minced ninja.

"Nothing, I just thought it would be fun to post this with a letter, 'Dear Danzō-san, I appreciate the thoughtfulness of the gifts you sent me, however I have no use for them and so would like to return them, yours sincerely, Uzumaki Naruto,'," the whiskered blond said with a smile on his face as the girl proceeded to let out a small laugh at the thought of the old warhawk receiving his own ANBU in several pieces, "of course I'll have to address it to Baachan and have instructions for her to open it during a council meeting."

"Ha, I would love to see the look on his face when that happens, still, you'll have to post the damn thing first," Tayuya stated with a small smile as she took notice of the rapid change in scenery.

What was once a lush forest was quickly clearing to reveal a harsh desert with several ruins littering the land, remnants of an ancient civilisation, long since destroyed by unknown forces.

"I know, I just want to put another couple of dozen masks in it before sending it to Konoha," the former konoha nin said calmly as he stopped at the edge of the desert, "Tayuya, I want to try out my teleportation jutsu, so if you don't want to get left behind then I'd advise you to grab onto me."

Almost immediately the redhead let out a sigh as she put her arms around his neck before feeling her legs getting lifted around his waist, earning a hint of annoyance from her, unhappy that she was being given another piggyback by the blond, she had nothing against the last time since her legs were broken back then but now… now it just made her feel awkward.

Feeling that his travelling companion was firmly attached to him, the former genin began to focus chakra to one of his feet, creating what could only be described as a 'shoe' of chakra that covered his foot. Once he had achieved that stage he created a string of chakra at the front, forcing it to stretch as far as it could before gluing it to the ground.

Almost immediately he lifted his other foot from the ground before taking a step, pushing chakra into his heel, pushing him forward while he focused on decreasing the length of the string, effectively pulling him along the line like a track until he reached the end and finished his step.

It all took less than a second.

Feeling the rush of air hit her face for an instant, Tayuya couldn't help but look back at the forest they had just left, her eyes widening when she saw the distance travelled in that instant, it was easily two hundred metres, given that they had made the step in approximately one second, she was able to calculate in her head that they had travelled at over four hundred miles an hour.

She didn't have time to get over the shock as she once again felt the air hit her and the forest once again moved further away.

Her mind reeled in shock as the blond proceeded to take step after step, the forest no longer visible after five, as she tried to process just how impressive his new jutsu was given the total level of knowledge the inventor possessed and in the end, it shocked her more than hearing about the hiraishin no jutsu.

Once again the boy had made a ridiculously dangerous jutsu using what could only be considered basic knowledge, he was proving to her that he was more than capable of taking what he knew to the extremes that no one else would even consider.

Looking forward, she opened her eyes upon feeling the wind stop for an instant, immediately widening them as she saw an immense wall with a single passage leading inside, in less than half an hour they had reached Sunagakure… well technically they still had another 600 hundred metres to go but that could easily be walked and wouldn't risk the gate guards lashing out at a potential hostile.

Finally no longer required to keep a hold of the blond, Tayuya let go, noticing that the boy looked a little… woozy. It was obvious that he wasn't used to travelling at high speeds and unlike her, his stomach was taking the full pressure of the air that hit them during the trip. If she was honest she would have to admit that the mere fact the jinchūriki wasn't vomiting his guts up was impressive after moving at the speeds they had.

After taking several deep breaths the blue eyed mercenary turned to face the girl he travelled with and said a simple sentence she was more than happy to agree with.

"I think we should walk the rest of the trip," despite the obvious hints of him suffering from motion sickness, she could tell that he was otherwise fine as far as stamina and chakra were concerned, meaning that he was either going to throw up after one more attempt at the jutsu or he had come to the same conclusion as she had, it was better to not surprise the gate guards.

The duo were more than happy walking towards the village, easily seen by the sentries as they traversed the final portion of their journey unaided. It took nearly five minutes to walk the distance, much longer than it would've if they had simply used the jutsu to reach the gate itself, not that it really mattered, they did only move in a casual walk.

"Halt, state your names and business," came the stern call once they reached the gate, earning a small sigh off the spiky haired blond as he remembered that the gate guards of another village would obviously stop a stranger from entering without permission.

"Uzumaki Naruto, I'm here to see the Suna no Sankyōdai… if that's what you call them, I never actually thought about what they were known by in Suna before," he started seriously before he started to mutter to himself calmly.

"(sigh) that is what they are known by within these walls and they told me to allow you entrance if you were to ever show up but first I will need to ask you for some form of ID," the gatekeeper stated seriously, causing the blond to pull out the passport he was required to obtain when he became a genin.

The guard looked at the ID for several seconds, reading the details and scanning for a genjutsu just to make sure that everything was correct. Seeing no problems with the blonds ID he returned it calmly, remembering another piece of information the siblings had given him.

"welcome to Sunagakure," the guard said with a forced smile as he gestured them inside, which they decided to accept without complaints.

"(sigh) now back to standing around for hours doing nothing," the gatekeeper muttered under his breath as the duo entered the village.

XXX XXX XXX

"Well that was strange, I wonder why he didn't ask you for ID," Naruto muttered calmly as they walked along the street looking at the shops, cafés and calmly wondering where they would see their targets.

"Don't know but I'm glad, Hebi-teme didn't give us ID in case it was ever linked back to him, the only exception was during Chūnin exams held in Konoha and that was purely to let that pricks team enter and test that kid he wanted as a butt buddy," she answered quietly, not at all happy with the fact that her former association could probably get her killed if it was ever found out by a ninja of the village they were currently in.

"Damn, that sucks… hmm, I wonder if we could get you one here?" the whiskered jinchūriki muttered as he caressed his chin calmly.

"Pfft, doubt it, unless they made that Gaara kid Kazekage we'll be lucky to get anything except tokens of goodwill," the redhead told him with a hint of annoyance easily detectable in her tone.

"Well we'll never know unless we try, besides, it's only a passport, all it'll do is let you in other villages if we decide to visit them," the azure eyed mercenary stated, causing the girl to roll her eyes.

"You don't get it do you, each passport has to be authorised by an official to state that the information contained is correct, that means that the Kazekage himself will have to sign to approve it if I try to get one here and I doubt he'll be happy to give one to a complete stranger," she explained before letting out a sigh at the end.

"Oh well, like I said, it's worth a try even if you don't get one," it was a simple statement that simply caused the girl to hang her head in defeat, he did have a point.

The duo kept walking calmly before Naruto grew bored and decided to simply ask someone if they knew where Gaara was.

"Excuse me, do you know where Sabaku no Gaara is?" it was a simple question directed at a young girl with long brown hair wearing a Suna hitae-ate, causing her to face him with a suspicious look before replying.

"Why do you want to see Kazekage-sama?"

The effect was immediate, with Naruto clearing his ears while Tayuya stared in disbelief.

"I'm sorry, did just say Gaara's Kazekage now?" the blond asked as calmly as he could, earning a simple nod from the girl before he turned to face his companion, "you were saying?" the shit eating grin that spread across his face was truly infuriating and it took all of the redheads self control to not punch his face in.

"Just… shut up," the annoyance in her tone was enough to tell the ninja that she had missed something the duo had been talking about earlier.

"Well, sorry to disturb ya, sayonara," the whiskered blond said to the ninja before turning towards the Kazekage's tower.

"Wait! Who are you and what do you want with Kazekage-sama?!" the brown haired girl asked as she pulled out a kunai, ready to fight the strangers that apparently wanted something from the Kazekage.

"(sigh) a bit of advice, one, an enemy is unlikely to simply ask for someone's whereabouts if they are actually after that person and two, be careful when picking a fight, you never know when you'll face someone that could kill you with a flick of their wrist," the blond stated calmly, causing Tayuya's eyebrow to raise as a corner of her lips twitched in amusement at what the blond was saying.

"Well if you're not an enemy then you shouldn't have any reason to hide why you want Kazekage-sama," the brown haired girl stated seriously, causing the blond to face her with a simple smile as he gave his answer.

"Do I need a reason to visit a friend?"

"Huh? You're a friend of Kazekage-sama?" the young girl asked with a look of surprise on her features as she looked at the boy in front of her, "what proof do you have?"

"Huh? What the hell are you talking about? The only way to prove you're someone's friend is by them agreeing with you," Naruto muttered, obviously annoyed at the girl for suggesting that there was some material way to prove a person's friendship.

"If you can't prove it then I won't let you see Kazekage-sama," the obviously protective girl stated seriously, causing Naruto to look at her blankly.

"What rank are you?" he asked calmly, causing the girl to blink a couple of times at the sudden question.

"Genin," she said uncertainly.

"Okay, if a genin is strong enough to stop me from seeing him then I'm obviously not a threat, especially when you take into account his shield," the blond deadpanned before turning towards the Kazekage's tower once again.

The girl was just about to try and stop him again when she was interrupted by a voice that they all recognised.

"Well well, so you two finally decided to pay us a visit huh?"

* * *

Now as I said before this story will not be updated, it may be rewritten at some point however that is dependent largely on a poll I set up on my proper profile.


	10. Rewrite finally up

And the first chapter of the rewrite has finally been posted.

you can locate it here:

fanfiction s/9570697/1/Shi-No-Tenshi

I hope you enjoy


End file.
